Just some thoughts about current shows. Some of these contain spoilers for recent episode, so if you’re behind on your viewing, be warned.
- Life With Bonnie has slipped in quality from last season. It’s not just the absence of the daughter and the injection of David Allen Grier into the home atmosphere. There’s some change in tone or at least effectiveness in reaching the tone. This is no longer on the must see list, although it is still watchable.
- Angel has had robots or robot mentions in the last two episodes. Don’t be surprised if those two events are linked and serve as part of the larger story.
- Ed — I’m saying this before watching last night’s episode, having just caught last week’s episode. I find it interesting that they have Carol moving out of Stuckeyville at the same time as Molly just broke up with her beau. In the past on this show, there was a brief but genuine mention of Molly’s interest in Ed. If I didn’t know the texture of this show so well, I’d think they were setting up Molly making a play for Ed, but I have trouble seeing them do that to the Carol/Molly relationship.
- A Minute with Stan Hooper — just a quick note that I noticed that the first two episodes aired were #101 and #104, which suggests that they skipped some of the first episodes they made, holding them to later in the season. They may recognize that they’re just finding their pace.
- Frasier didn’t have Valerie Mahaffey this episode, but I think we’ll see her again. Then again, just about every actress that I would specifically want to see on this series has shown up at least once. (Well, it would be nice but unlikely to have Emma Thompson reprise her roll from Cheers, where she played Frasier’s first wife.)
- Karen Sisco continues to be the perfect modern show for the Rockford Files audience, without being a Rockford ripoff in any way. Sadly, last I heard it had not yet been picked up for the full season. This is good stuff, folks!
- Las Vegas continues to be cheesy, unimpeded by logic or reality, and yet still something I gotta see. Having shed any pretense, I think we can file this as my official current “guilty pleasure”.
- Malcolm in the Middle is not off to a dynamite start. I don’t think we’ll be getting as good a season as we got last year, although still perhaps better than the year before. They’re lucky in one regard: the kid who plays Dewey has aged well, going from a weird-but-quiet presence to a weird-but-vocal one.
- Two and a Half Men is holding up and actually getting better. This week’s may have been the best yet.
- The West Wing seems largely devoid of passion. The characters are all locked in politics, rather than in concerns. It looks to be entering the same kind of bland dreariness that has afflicted ER for oh so long. Given the success of that show, Law and Order, and CSI, perhaps that’s what the audience wants these days, but I’d rather have some upbeat material mixed in.
- Tarzan is off the schedule. Won’t miss it.
